Brave Heart

So, I have never smelled African Leather or The One Luminous Night. Before purchasing this fragrance, I thoroughly researched through YouTube - I watched all available videos on YouTube, sometimes just using subtitles - and all of them basically said that although the bottle design might make the fragrance look like a clone of African Leather, it's actually a good clone of The One Luminous Night. So I thought to myself: Great! I've heard a lot of hype and praise for this perfume, so let's give it a try! Now that I have ordered the fragrance myself (for an incredible 13 euros, what a deal!), I can say that I don't understand these reviews at all. Maybe the wrong juice was filled into the bottles in the first batch? Or perhaps the fragrance has already been reformulated? My batch is from 11/2023... The fragrance is officially described as follows: Top notes: Bergamot, Cardamom, Black Pepper Heart notes: Leather, Clary Sage, Cedarwood Base notes: Amber, Musk, Sandalwood, Vanilla On the other hand, based on my own research on the internet, The One Luminous Night is heavy on the dates and incense - accords that I cannot detect in this fragrance. I perceive a noticeable clary sage, which accompanies all other notes. There is a good amount of cardamom and a nice splash of black pepper, which pleasantly tickles the nose. There is a slight bergamot freshness that persists throughout the life of the fragrance - unusual for citrus notes. Not a big fan of leather, but I am pleasantly surprised by this. It is definitely there, but it doesn't take center stage - it's more of a co-star alongside the spices, clary sage, and dry cedar. It doesn't come across as animalistic or like a leather seat, it's more of a light, balanced, soothing type of leather - perhaps it's even more of a suede. I also perceive a patchouli-like minty earthiness, maybe it's just not listed in the official scent notes, or it's due to a combination of some of the accords. The creamy warm base harmonizes beautifully with the spice, leather, and earthiness of the heart. The performance is quite okay - about 7 hours on my skin with good projection in the first 1.5-2 hours. In the end, this is not at all what I expected at all, but I am thrilled by this fragrance. Especially for the price at which I got it.

This was a blind buy in Dec 2023, presentation is close copy of African leather, I have never smelled African leather. my initial couple wears, it smelled bit rough, synthetic and it seemed like there was no structure. So, I put it away for six months. After 6 months, I am wearing it again today. It has matured and has pleasantly changed. Opening is strong spicy and fresh. It started with pleasant aroma of black pepper and bergamot, I did not get any cardamom in it. Will search for it in next wears. After 30 minutes, sage and leather came in front strongly and worked quite well together, sage continued to become stronger while leather taking back seat. leather is nice and pleasant. After 5 hours, the dry down is gorgeous, getting creamy vanilla, and sandalwood. Projection 1.5 to 2 hours Longevity 10 - 12 hours Scent 8 sub $25 price cheapie smells expensive.

Is it good? No Is it worth blindbuying? No longevity? Not bad Worth Collecting? No I refuse to ever pay memo prices, but also this isnt a replacement for memo. I don't really think this is similar to Memo's african leather, maybe closer to The one Luminous night but even then not really. I just don't really understand this, its sweet and odd. I love cedar wood fragrances, but theres something about sweet cedar wood I just find unappealing, its kinda of musty, sweaty, musky smell. Personally I wouldn't recommend this, none of the notes listed here seem to be actually in the perfume. Its not that this smells bad, it just smells directionless, unappealing and boring.

Four months after getting it, it's a great twenty minutes. My bottle may be an outlier, but the longevity is the shortest I've ever known.

Smells nothing like african leather. I haven't smelled luminous night, but if that's supposed to be similar to side effect then it doesn't smell like that either. Smells cheap and messy.